Prep Softball: Boylan fends off another late Harlem surge

Thursday

Apr 17, 2014 at 9:55 PMApr 17, 2014 at 9:55 PM

By Jay TaftRockford Register Star

MACHESNEY PARK — This time, Harlem fell 60 feet short.

After erasing a four-run deficit in the seventh inning for an extra-inning win over Belvidere on Wednesday afternoon, the Huskies rallied late again on Thursday. But this time they stranded the tying run on third and the winning run on second in the bottom of the seventh, falling 7-6 to Boylan in a key early-season NIC-10 showdown.

Boylan (6-8, 1-2 NIC-10) avoided its first 0-3 start in conference play in fourth-year coach Brad Frisch’s stint, but it didn’t come easy. The Titans got help early, using three hits, a walk and two Huskie errors to put four across in the first inning.

They even built the lead to 7-3 on back-to-back RBI singles from Hannah Long and Dakota Wallen in the sixth. But Harlem (4-2, 2-1) never went away.

“We knew they could come back on you — everybody in our dugout knew what they did (Wednesday),” Frisch said. “And just to be able to close it out and get the win in this one is huge. If we couldn’t have, this one would’ve been a very tough one to swallow.”

The Huskies loaded the bases with one out in the seventh of a 7-5 game, forcing Boylan starter Sammy Brown to dig deep. Brown got an easy fielder’s-choice out at home, and then after Emily Brandon slapped a run-scoring single to center to cut the lead to one, Brown induced a slow grounder to second, which Anna Bartos cradled and easily fired to first for the final out.

“That’s not the way we wanted to close the door, but once I saw the bases loaded, I really knew I had to finish it fast,” said Brown, who also went 2-for-4 with a triple at the plate. “I took a deep breath, dug down, and believed in my team.”

Long and Gabby Stoner went 3-for-4 with an RBI each, while Brandon, Jazmine Sherwood and Kelly Hormig each went 2-for-4 for Harlem.